Diversity Plan & Organizational Change

AEI Systems creates software for retail chains to handle their point of sale processing and their inventory control. The systems are written on a custom basis for individual clients and the company targets companies with sales in excess of $20 million per year. AEI has a highly satisfied nationwide customer base and a group of talented software developers and engineers who have helped make the company successful.

Despite this success, the company remains much the "familyrun" organization that it was in the beginning. Formed by Ken Marks and his brother-in-law (John Hammond) in the early 1980s, AEI originally built on Ken's inventory manager background and John's contacts within industry to purchase rights to a particularly effective inventory control software package. Hammond's sister was brought in to handle the books, and one of Ken's daughters started working as a receptionist. Ken then moved to recruiting at local colleges and universities to find students and graduates with the knowledge, but not the salary requirements, which would help his new company grow.

As AEI expanded and experienced more success, it took on a decidedly white male culture. As the number of employees passed 50 in the early 1990s, a variety of skills, including programming, technical writing and project management, were represented. At this point, the company must develop a program to manage the diversity within the organization if it is to be successful in the long-term. Se

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ourages employees from throughout the organization to attain additional levels of responsibility, the company is putting into place a plan which should answer the concerns of HP and Digital in their relations with the company (Cliffe, 1998, p. 16). At this point, the company does not appear to have difficulty in recruiting employees from diverse backgrounds, although there is a heavy emphasis on the Mormon religion; given Ken's background, this is not unexpected. The diversity plan itself will have several key objectives: bring people of diverse backgrounds into the company; provide upward mobility and training for all employees regardless of background; ensure that all employees recognize the value of diversity and strive to maintain an atmosphere of respect and co-operation. The first objective is, to some extent, already met. However, the company can do more than merely accepting candidates who by chance happen to be of diverse cultural backgrounds. In addition to recruiting through local colleges and universities for recent graduates, the company could establish an internship program which would offer paid training to students in need. These students are not likely to have diverse economic and social backgrounds relativ

Category: Business - D